“In the beginning God made heaven and earth. . . . Then God said, Behold, I have given you every seed-bearing herb that sows seed on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food. I also give every green plant as food for all the wild animals of the earth, for all the birds of heaven, and for everything that creeps on the earth in which is the breath of life.” It was so. Then God saw everything He had made, and indeed, it was very good. So evening and morning were the sixth day.” Book of Genesis, Chap 1:1, 29-31, commonly attributed to “the Yahwist”, circa 5th Century B.C.E, as translated and interpreted in The Orthodox Study Bible: Ancient Christianity Speaks to Today's World, Thomas Nelson Publishing, 2008, USA.
“ . . . the greatest service which can be rendered to any country is to add a useful plant to its culture; especially a bread grain, next in value to bread, is oil.”, Thomas Jefferson, 3rd President of the United States of America, Memorandum of Services to My Country, Sep. 2, 1800, Charlottesville, Va. USA.
Many plants, such as plants from the family Cannabaceae sensu stricto, have many medicinal and therapeutic activity and uses. The medicinal and therapeutic activity of plants is primarily due to the active biological compounds or phytochemicals that the plants contain. The activity of phytochemicals is typically associated to a specific plant species of which a combination of compounds act in concert or harmony to result in a healing or medicinal outcome. Regardless of the concentration in a phyto-biomass, it is desirable to extract specific compounds, or produce an enriched and/or purified extract from plants, which can be then used for medicinal and pharmaceutical formulations.
Known extraction methods and systems which have been used to separate phytochemicals from plants, and produce enriched compounds, include maceration, decoction, distillation, sublimation, and extraction with aqueous and non-aqueous solvents.
Maceration may be defined as the extraction of a compound in a solvent at ambient room temperature with daily shaking or stirring. After a selected period, the solid material is separated from the solution. Variation on the method includes agitation of the macerate and the use of temperatures up to approximately 50° C. A variation of the method includes preparation of tinctures and extracts from low-density plant materiel using various strengths of ethanol as a solvent.
Decoction has been used since antiquity for the preparation of medicines; and customarily in traditional Chinese medicine, to place the quantity of herbs required for one day's treatment into a vessel and add hot or boiling water. The vessel may be brought to a boil and allowed to simmer for one or more hours. Once cooled, solid particles are filtered out and the decoction administered orally.
Maceration and decoction rely on short path diffusion, where inactive constituents such as lecithins, flavonoids, glycosides and sugars act to solubilize compounds which, in a pure state, are soluble in the solvent. A disadvantage of maceration and decoction with water or low concentrations of ethanol is that a large quantity of inert material typically having no therapeutic value must be removed. This inert material may consist of plant cell elements including, but not limited to fats, waxes, carbohydrates, proteins, and sugars. This may contribute to microbiological spoilage of a resulting product if not used promptly or further refined or preserved in some fashion. If dried, such extracts tend to be hygroscopic and difficult to formulate. The inert material may also affect how active phyto-elements are absorbed in and from a finished formulation.
Maceration and decoction are still widely used in situations where convenience outweighs precise dosage accuracy. Macerate and/or percolate solvents may be removed by evaporation at temperatures below 100° C. dependent upon the solvent used.
A wide range of processes based on the use of non-aqueous solvents to extract compounds from plants are known and taught in the prior art. Solvents employed may be miscible or immiscible with water and vary in efficacy. Techniques used to extract compounds from plants include liquid and solid extraction, liquid and gas chromatography and other separation and fractioning techniques.
Traditionally, for plant materials, ethyl alcohol in various concentrations is used to extract active substances. Tinctures are ethanol solutions easily produced and well described in most major pharmacopoeias. Where the final concentration of alcohol is greater than approximately 20% by volume, the tincture remains microbiologically stable and widely used in compounding prescriptions. Ethanol extracts substances such as glycosides, flavonoids and alkaloid salts are examples of compounds known to be biologically active. Ethanol also extracts considerable amounts of plant pigment, such as chlorophyll and carotenoids. By using higher alcohol strengths, lipid-soluble material may be extracted. Tinctures typically contain less inert material than macerates or decoctions, but are still complex mixtures of plant chemical elements. Where alcohol is not required or desired, a tincture may be evaporated to produce ethanol free extracts.
Lipid solvents are also used to extract lipid soluble chemical elements from a phyto-biomass. Examples are chlorinated solvents such as dichloromethane, chloroform, carbon-tetrachloride, hexane, ether, fluorinated hydrocarbons, and supercritical fluid extraction with inert agents such as carbon dioxide.
Using chlorinated solvents is highly disadvantageous for phyto-biomass extraction because of extreme toxicity; and because for medicinal or pharmaceutical use such toxic solvents must be removed by various means before administration. Hexane and other petroleum-based solvents have good solvent activity; however, they must also be completely removed from any end product, and also carry the risk of fire and explosion during use.
Distillation and sublimation have been widely used to separate components of phyto-chemicals which have boiling points close to water (100° C.) at sea-level atmospheric pressure (14 psi). Chemical separation by distillation is widely used in the preparation of essential oils and also petrochemicals.
However, using at temperature at or above 100° C. to extract a phytochemical from plant material or a phytochemical composition is extremely undesirable and disadvantageous in many cases, as the temperature adversely affects or changes many phytochemicals and plant compounds. One process that results from using high temperatures is decarboxylation of plant material. Decarboxylation is a chemical reaction that removes a carboxyl group and releases carbon dioxide (CO2). Usually, decarboxylation refers to a reaction of carboxylic acids, such as removing a carbon atom from a carbon chain.
In many instances, a phytochemical is desired and/or required in a “natural” form; therefore, eliminating from feasible use nearly all known extraction methods and systems which utilize heating or temperatures at or above 100° C.
Known methods and systems used to extract compounds include: U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,679,728, 2,198,412, 2,414,418, 3,270,437, 3,936,489, 4,279,824, 5,372,680, 5,516,923, 5,525,746, 6,350,351, 6,365,416, 6,403,126, 6,730,519, 6,946,150, 7,025,992, 7,291,250, 7,344,736, 7,524,881, 7,592,468, 7,622,140, 7,700,368, 8,343,553, 8,445,034, 8,530,679, 8,673,368, 8,846,409, 8,859,793, 8,895,078, 8,906,956, 9,022,040, 9,034,395, 9,034,395, 9,035,130, 9,044,390, 9,186,386, 9,199,960, 9,205,063, 9,327,210, 9,333,441, 9,358,259, 9,592,457, 9,649,349, 9,649,349, 9,649,575, 9,655,936, 9,655,937, 9,669,326, 9,669,328, US20020039795, US20020086438, US20030017216, US20030050334, US20040033280, US20040049059, US20040147767, US20040147769, US20050049298, US20060167283, US20080031977, US20080167483, US20100119606, US20100168448, US20110100894, US20110133120, US20110201836, US20110256245, US20120263804, US20130079531, US20130149322, US20130256245, US20120263804, US20130079531, US20130149322, US20130251824, US20140113010, US20140114084, US20140248379, US20140341934, US20150105569, US20150119592, US20150203434, US20150258153, US20150297653, US20150297654, US20150375136, US20160038437, US20160074450, US20160074451, US20160106705, US20160136541, US20160201009, US20160136541, US20160201009, US20160213720, US20160228787, US20160279183, US20160324909, US20160326130, US20160346339, US20160360721, US20170008870, US20170020943, US20170020944, US20170049830, US20170051231, US20170106030, US20170119040.
It is desired to provide a method and system to overcome the above-mentioned and other disadvantages in the prior art by and for removing phytochemicals and plant compounds from plant material or a phytochemical composition without adversely or undesirably by heat affecting the extracted phytochemicals themselves.
It is desired to provide a method and system that overcomes the above-mentioned and other disadvantages in the prior art and by and for removing phytochemicals from plant material or phytochemical compositions from the plant family Cannabaceae sensu stricto without adversely or undesirably by heat affecting the extracted phytochemicals themselves.